Memeorandum

April 22, 2012

CYA, Or Manning The Lifeboats?

Arthur Brisbane, the Public Apologit for the NY Times, assures us that the "All The News That Fits The Narrative" orgnization is poised to take a "hard look" at the President:

Now, though, the general election season is on, and The Times needs to offer an aggressive look at the president’s record, policy promises and campaign operation to answer the question: Who is the real Barack Obama?

Many critics view The Times as constitutionally unable to address the election in an unbiased fashion. Like a lot of America, it basked a bit in the warm glow of Mr. Obama’s election in 2008. The company published a book about the country’s first African-American president, “Obama: The Historic Journey.” The Times also published a lengthy portrait of him in its Times Topics section on NYTimes.com, yet there’s nothing of the kind about George W. Bush or his father.

Uhh, yeah.

According to a study by the media scholars Stephen J. Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter, The Times’s coverage of the president’s first year in office was significantly more favorable than its first-year coverage of three predecessors who also brought a new party to power in the White House: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

Writing for the periodical Politics & Policy, the authors were so struck by the findings that they wondered, “Did The Times, perhaps in response to the aggressive efforts by Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal to seize market share, decide to tilt more to the left than it had in the past?”

Oh say it ain't so, Arthur!

I strongly doubt that.

Thank you. To be fair, that would imply the Times organization actually had a strategy and was capable of executing it. But on with the pre-apologia:

Based on conversations with Times reporters and editors who cover the campaign and Washington, I think they see themselves as aggressive journalists who don’t play favorites. Still, a strong current of skepticism holds that the paper skews left. Unfortunately, this is exacerbated by collateral factors — for example, political views that creep into nonpolitical coverage.

To illustrate, Faye Farrington, a reader from Hollis, N.H., wrote me earlier this year in exasperation over a Sunday magazine article about “Downton Abbey,” the public television series, in which the writer slipped in a veiled complaint about Mitt Romney’s exploitation of the American tax code.

“The constant insertion of liberal politics into even the most politically irrelevant articles has already caused us to cancel our daily subscription,” Ms. Farrington wrote, “leaving only the Sunday delivery as I confess to an addiction to the Sunday crossword.”

The dining section, the food, the movies and plays - all politicized. But not the reporting!

The warm afterglow of Mr. Obama’s election, the collateral effects of liberal-minded feature writers — these can be overcome by hard-nosed, unbiased political reporting now.

As plans go, "hard-nosed, unbiased political reporting" could change their reputation. Or waiting for pigs to fly out of my... well, let's say, there are a variety of approaches that might turn the perception that the Times has slanted left for decades.

Mr. Brisbane turns to the news desk for reassurance:

I asked Richard Stevenson, the political editor overseeing campaign coverage, about these matters, and he offered a detailed e-mail response, noting that “we take very seriously our responsibility to report without favoritism.”

He added, “We remind ourselves every day of the need to provide readers — voters — with as much news, information and context as possible about the candidates, their records, their characters, their positions and the influences on them, including their campaign donors.”

Yeah, yeah. We'll see ya in November.

AFTER THAT INTRO: Jackie Calmes looks at Obama's use of Air Force One; this is a great article for April, when only the poli-junkies care; come October the Times will be dropping bombs on Romney on a daily basis, but they will claim that over the full year their coverage was balanced. And Ms. Calmes closing point - Reagan did it too! - will hardly elevate this bowl of mush to the hard-hitting Hall of Fame.

IMO, any news the Times has published since at least the 1930s has first been ran by the CPUSA to see how the Communists want it reported. After getting their reply from the Communists, The NYTs publishes the story the way the Communists want it to read.

I think the Zimmerman case provides evidence that the media and political powers, on both the right and left, see the public as a mob, almost a powder keg that has to be managed. Not only is the citizenry potentially unmanageable, so also is the US economy. An Obama type is needed to play the angles, use all the levers of the status quo to avoid riots or an economic crash.

Just popping on for a minute...
I'm over in Italy. Wonderful Pieces today! Love, love, love the whole dog eating story!!! Is it huge in the MFM? Loved the Olberman photo a few threads back too...I thought it was Joe Wilson...that connoisseur of ze yellow cake. Hah!
We've been in southern Switzerland & Italy visiting my Naomi. She is wonderful. Tons of graffiti over here. For the whole green love affair with Europe's small cars & trains, they don't seem to have mastered the "Don't be a Litter Bug" program yet.
It is a cigarette smokers paradise here too. :) I've only bought a leather bracelet & a little tin cigarette rolling contraption.
Only getting to lurk now & then, but it's good to see everyone!

I gave up the NYTimes daily for the same reason as the NH letter writer. But 3 years ago I gave up the Sunday also. Got tired of reading Randy Cohen and Deberoah Solomon make Bush-hating an obligation of every ethical decision or celebrity interview. Even Will Shortz was able to find ways of making W or Cheney the somnelent clue hidden somewhere in the puzzle.

I always wondered why the Military Prep-Academies and Schools would want to advertise to that audience?

Despite President Obama's relentlessly focused and brilliant response to the financial crisis, without which Western Civilization and car manufacturing wouldn't have any longer existed, the robust economic recovery, amazing in light of the shape of the economy during the Bush years, has not met the expectations of those who had an unduly optimistic view of what Mr. Obama could accomplish in the face of Tea Party obstructionism and the GOP War on Women.

What a load of bunk! Why even a starving dog would turn up his nose at this pile of steaming dog doo! The New York Times is striving to retain his "credibility virginity"---but as every woman knows, once you've lost it, you've lost it.

It's very simple. Their kids are the ones most out of control. I knew a lot of Valley Forge kids back in the day, and most of them ended up there as a result of all sorts of interesting circumstances, few of them related to the military life.

While the Obama dog story has been fun I'm skeptical of any lasting harm to him. I was talking to my daughter today who is a typical non-political independent, suburban mom. All her friends and husband (whom I always refer to as "what's his name") voted for Obama. She voted for McCain but that was probably due in some measure to me. I asked her about the dog stories and she had only heard of the Romney dog one. Darn.

The good news is I'm sure she'll vote for Romney but I'm not sure about "what's his name".

The NYT is what it is because it's business model is to super-serve its most critical remaining market: educated, affluent, urban or suburban women. It prints what it thinks they want to read (which may be a plausible survival plan.) Add to that selection bias, isolation bias and confirmation bias among those who work there, and you have what you have.

Today's Times is to the old newspaper of record as the lightening bug is to the lightening, or a Pinch is to a Punch.

It does very little good to have the great stories & videos just on conservative sites. Ugh...that's just "preaching to the choir". So frustrating.
That video of Obama giving the same speech 2 years in a row was great. It needs to be on TV...and the dog eating story should be on TV now. Clips of "news" guys bringing up Romney's dog with Obama reading about how he ATE dog. Seriously...this is winning material right now.

Janet, I bet you are saving on cigarettes in Europe. IIRC you can just stand in a crowd and inhale all the smoke you want to. I almost coughed myself silly entering German customs at the same time a plane full of Turkish workers came in and lit up the instant they left their plane. Imagine standing next to 150 smoking Turks--cigarette smoking, that is.It was hard to see through the tobacco haze.
Come home and clean up your lungs. We need you able to chant.

Hi, Janet. Glad you're having a good time. I gave up the Sunday Times a couple of years ago, too, JiB. You can buy books of the double acrossticks and crossword puzzles and I do .Prevents indigestion. Here's who reads that paper religiously--people like B O'B and KK to get their daily affirmation.

So, imagine a media company that prided themselves on a reputation for hard-nosed, bias-free, nothing-but-the-facts news reporting.

Here's the plan...

Just like California does with judges' sexual proclivities - so as to make sure that gays, S&M aficionados and the transgendered are adequately represented on the bench - require that all news reporters report their political persuasion annually. Do the same for job applicants.

If management finds any statistical difference between the reporting staff and the public at large, rectify this either by hiring or by attrition. In this way, management can be assured of a truly diverse and representative team, and can certify this to their customers.

Then, and only then...

Each week, at the weekly news-staff staff meeting, require each reporter to present a summary of his or her most recent pieces to the team. Make it clear that staff members are encouraged to comment on any observations of political bias in the works of their colleagues.

If an observation is made, and management or the team seems to agree with the observation, gently chastise the reporter while he or she is still standing at the projector screen.

Finally, at every meeting, reiterate the news team's policy on annual performance evaluations, and how these evaluations relate to compensation and promotions.